Boon Edam secures uniquely designed restaurant in North Carolina

Boon Edam, a provider of security entrances and architectural revolving doors, announced that the Chick-fil-A restaurant, located in historic Cameron Village in Raleigh, NC, has "broken the mold" of its typical store design and installed a Boon Edam manual revolving door as the main entrance to the restaurant.

Cameron Village was the first planned community to be developed in Raleigh, North Carolina. The development was started in 1947 when J.W. York and R.A. Bryan bought 158 acres of undeveloped land two miles west of downtown Raleigh, near the North Carolina State University campus. The "village" was to consist of a shopping center, apartments, and single family homes.

The distinctive Chick-fil-A restaurant features outdoor dining at street level and on a second story patio with a view of the Raleigh skyline. The store also has a large atrium and a two-lane drive-thru. Generously proportioned walkways converge on the southwest corner of the building, leading up to a Boon Edam TQM revolving door. "We've got restaurants now in 42 states across America, and I can tell you, there's only one Cameron Village. It is distinctive and special," said John Featherston, Senior Director, New Ventures, Chick-fil-A.

"The best design is intuitive. You can have a sign that says 'Welcome' and that's OK, but an entrance should be intuitive like this design and our revolving door. The Boon Edam entrance has fit perfectly with our design concept, and it has exceeded our expectations," concluded John Featherston, Senior Director, New Ventures, Chick-fil-A.

The Cameron Village Chick-fil-A has been a passion for Featherston for over 10 years. "This was not going to be a prototypical design for us in any way. Cameron Village is unique, so our restaurant needed to be unique as well. Americans are increasingly choosing to live in mixed-use, urban settings. We needed a building to fit the style, heritage, and history of this special place."

Why did Featherston and his team choose a Boon Edam revolving door for the entrance to their new design? "The restaurant had to be designed to be inviting to pedestrians, those using the drive-through and people parking and coming in. With the positioning of the building and the entrance it was our hope to become a gathering place for Cameron Village. In our view, nothing says we're ready for you more than a revolving door—it conveys volume and urban sophistication…it says, 'You are welcome to walk into our restaurant.'"

The desired outcome for the new structure was for it to appear to be an original building that had been repurposed. Featherston continued, "We aspire for our brand to be characterized by the quality of both food and service. This Cameron Village building is how we already thought about Chick-fil-A. In many ways, the building is unique in its loveliness, but it goes even beyond the characteristics of the brand prior to occupying a space like this one."

"The best design is intuitive. You can have a sign that says 'Welcome' and that's OK, but an entrance should be intuitive like this design and our revolving door. The Boon Edam entrance has fit perfectly with our design concept, and it has exceeded our expectations," Featherston concluded.